Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel

Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel by L.M. Montgomery, adapted by Mariah Marsden, illustrated by Brenna Thummler

As a life-long fan of Anne Shirley (the Megan Follows/Jonathan Crombie CBC version is an absolute favourite, and the books from when I was a child), it was only a matter of time before I read this graphic novel. I was quite impressed with the loveliness of this book. The adapter and illustrator  did an incredible job of capturing the spirit of Anne in this version of our beloved and enthusiastic heroine.

“Schoolyard rivalries. Baking disasters. Puffed sleeves. Explore the violet vales and glorious green of Avonlea in this spirited adaptation.
The magic of L.M. Montgomery’s treasured classic is reimagined in a whimsically-illustrated graphic novel adaptation perfect for newcomers and kindred spirits alike. When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan who can help manage their family farm, they have no idea what delightful trouble awaits them. With flame-red hair and an unstoppable imagination, 11-year-old Anne Shirley takes Green Gables by storm.
Anne’s misadventures bring a little romance to the lives of everyone she meets: her bosom friend, Diana Barry; the town gossip, Mrs. Lynde; and that infuriating tease, Gilbert Blythe. From triumphs and thrills to the depths of despair, Anne turns each everyday moment into something extraordinary.” (Goodreads)

I came across this page and just had to pause on it for a few moments. It’s definitely a fave quote and I just love the illustration that totally brought the quote to life! I also realized that we’re currently in the month of October; I hadn’t planned to read this book this month, but it was very appropriate and cozy!

 

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 8/13!!

Rainbow Valley

Rainbow Valley by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This is book #7 in the Anne of Green Gables series. I’d never read this one before, but am slowly making my way through the series. The Meredith children really do get themselves into some interesting predicaments as the children of the Minister. I think my fave moment was when Faith and Una mistakenly clean the house on Sunday! Lol. What a fine kettle of fish!

“Anne Shirley is grown up, has married her beloved Gilbert and now is the mother of six mischievous children.
These boys and girls discover a special place all their own, but they never dream  of what will happen when the strangest family  moves into an old nearby mansion. The Meredith clan is  two boys and two girls, with minister father but  no mother — and a runaway girl named Mary Vance. Soon the Meredith kids join Anne’s children in their private hideout to carry out their plans to save Mary from the orphanage, to help the lonely minister find happiness, and to keep a pet rooster from the soup pot. There’s always an adventure brewing in the sun-dappled world of Rainbow Valley.” (Goodreads)

Have you read the entire Anne series? I read the first six books when I was a preteen-ish person, but hadn’t read them for years after that. Going through the series now within the last few years, I’m finding a brand new appreciation for these stories! I’m definitely an Anne and Gilbert fan, and it’s fun to see the next generation of their family (and their friends!).

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 7/13!!

The Inconvenient Indian

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

This book is one that I had to read for one of my book clubs. It’s been on my To Be Read list for a long time, so I was glad to finally get around to reading it. What a fascinating and interesting read, filled with a lot of things I didn’t know or was unaware had happened. Needless to say, every person who is interested in Native history in North America should read this book. I’m looking forward to the book club discussion this book will bring about!

“The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history—in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.
Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands.
This is a book both timeless and timely, burnished with anger but tempered by wit, and ultimately a hard-won offering of hope—a sometimes inconvenient, but nonetheless indispensable account for all of us, Indian and non-Indian alike, seeking to understand how we might tell a new story for the future.” (Goodreads)

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 6/13!!

Marilla of Green Gables

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

What a lovely story! I must say, before reading this book, I had never thought too much about the Marilla character and what her backstory was. This was such a great rendition and I was entertained immensely with it. It did make me wonder what L.M. Montgomery’s version would have been. Would it have been similar? Or completely different? I enjoyed immensely seeing how Marilla’s and Matthew’s sibling relationship with each other was from when the book starts to the end, and leading into when we meet them again in Anne of Green Gables.
In this book Marilla’s relationship with John Blythe was beautiful yet heartbreaking all at the same time! On the one hand, I totally wanted them to be together; but on the other hand (reality) I knew that they wouldn’t be together and that they couldn’t so that John’s son and Anne could meet and write their own story.

“Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is thirteen years old when her world is turned upside down. Her beloved mother has dies in childbirth, and Marilla suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife: cooking, sewing, keeping house, and overseeing the day-to-day life of Green Gables with her brother, Matthew and father, Hugh.
In Avonlea—a small, tight-knit farming town on a remote island—life holds few options for farm girls. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth “Izzy” Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape from Avonlea to the bustling city of St. Catharines. An opinionated spinster, Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world.
Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. Joining the Ladies Aid Society, she raises funds for an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Nova Scotia that secretly serves as a way station for runaway slaves from America. Her budding romance with John Blythe, the charming son of a neighbor, offers her a possibility of future happiness—Marilla is in no rush to trade one farm life for another. She soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition—jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe. Now Marilla must face a reckoning between her dreams of making a difference in the wider world and the small-town reality of life at Green Gables. ” (Goodreads)
This is a must-read for any fan of the world of Green Gables!!

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 5/13!!

 

 

The Quintland Sisters

The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood

This was a really fascinating book! I don’t want to spoil the book for those who haven’t read it, so I’ll keep my post fairly general and spoiler-free.
This fictional book looks at the true-life story of the Dionne Quintuplets who were born in 1934 and were the first quints to survive. They became a national phenomenon and a huge tourist attraction. This story is told through journal entries and letters of one of the nurses who care for them.
The true-life story of these children is a sad aspect of Canadian history.

“Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, making them wards of the British king, Emma signs on as their nurse.
Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical “Quints” playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression, the tourism and advertising dollars pour in. While the rest of the world delights in their sameness, Emma sees each girl as unique: Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Émilie. With her quirky eye for detail, Emma records every strange twist of events in her private journals.
As the fight over custody and revenues turns increasingly explosive, Emma is torn between the fishbowl sanctuary of Quintland and the wider world, now teetering on the brink of war. Steeped in research, Quintland™ is a novel of love, heartache, resilience, and enduring sisterhood—a fictional, coming-of-age story bound up in one of the strangest true tales of the past century.” (Goodreads)

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 4/13!!

Glass Beads

Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont

This book was about 4 young Indigenous people who must adapt to living off the reserve, among the first in their families to do so. These stories interconnect the lives of these individuals and is set against the backdrop of the ’90s and early 2000s. The back of the book shares that “Dumont authentically reveals how difficult it can be to live in this world made up of rules that do not work for many Indigenous people.”

This book wasn’t a favourite of mine, but I was glad that I read it. It seemed, to me with my very limited experience, to accurately capture a credible image of life for Indigenous young people in that time period. If I’m incorrect, please let me know! I want to learn!

Dumont is a Plains Cree comedian and actor born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada. She’s new to me, never having read anything by her before.

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 3/13!!

The Shadowy Horses

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley

What a great book! I’m definitely a fan of author Susanna Kearsley, and I love all of her books; and, this one has, page by page, made its way to the top of my fave Kearsley books! Another excellent read! The story kept me immersed and gave me just the right amount of chills, too!

“Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.
Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he’s finally found it-not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has “seen” a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.
Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.” (Goodreads)

*My progress for the Canadian Book Challenge is 2/13!!